Well, its friday and I promised an exam. However, I am pretty darn sure that most of you are completely unprepared for one, as I would have expected.

You see, very few people are REALLY interested in doing or even understanding exotic measurements like the Hirata test, they just like to pick and poke at the very idea that the test might give some interesting results. ... loadsa important guru pontificating ..

JC, I think the 'very few people' you mention are probably all here and waiting with bated breath for your results. I for one am always interested in tests that have some correlation to good sound.

Please don't keep us in suspense. How did Blowtorch do? Did anyone turn up with a simple 5532 amp for you to test?

Relevant perhaps, but an earlier one than he gave at the most recent AES convention (btw I have seen neither one --- I asked a client who was there in San Francisco to see if he could snag a preprint, but I doubt that he was able to).

Scott, you have to try to UNDERSTAND what the Hirata test measures, before you can say anything about it.

Not particularly difficult to understand, but isn't this some kind of archeolgy trying to find out why bad 40yr. old designs sounded bad. Those Crown amps were basicly engineered at the uA741 level. Engineers just didn't understand at the time (at least some audio engineers didn't).

__________________
"The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important."

and actually believing what I hear as a reasonably accurate determination of what sounds good and what does not.

Unless you believe you are the center of the world (as-it seems) and the model for the build of each living creature, how can-you pretend what you 'actually' hear have anything in common with what hear a young woman with more than one or two octaves up in the trebles comparing to you ?

I am continually amazed that I can hear any small differences in audio at all. Of course, I am often commanded by SY to do double-blind ABX tests in any case, just to make sure that I can't hear any differences, then I can be sure that I don't know anything at all about anything audio.

Here's the data on an Rs in the feedback loop --> 1985 -->
first is the raw thd of the driver in a rear loaded horn enclosure (big)-5-6% at 45Hz;
next is the same driver in the same box with the horn cut out and converted to a bass-reflez design 2.5-5%;
The last one is same except with the motional feedback resistor (Rs). 1.6% minimum. Enjoy -- RNMarsh

I am continually amazed that I can hear any small differences in audio at all. Of course, I am often commanded by SY to do double-blind ABX tests in any case, just to make sure that I can't hear any differences, then I can be sure that I don't know anything at all about anything audio.

JC, don't make statements like this, even in jest! Us faithful who grovel at your feet would all commit seppuku if there was the slightest hint that this could be true.

Please ignore the disbelievers and just concentrate on doing the Hirata and Quan tests on Blowtorch.